The invention relates to a manipulator for a device for depositing and withdrawing banknotes, in which the banknotes are conducted in a closed circuit between deposition and withdrawal, the device comprising an extractable drawer for manually inserting various banknotes (i.e., banknotes of different denomination) in different recesses, for the sorted reception of banknotes and for various banknotes in different shafts, from which the respective banknotes can be drawn off mechanically. Automatic machines by which cash money in the form of banknotes can be made to be paid out by using data carriers, such as, for instance, credit or check cards, as well as by inputting a personal code belong to the prior art. Sorting means, banknote identification means and other mechanical aids have been known for receiving banknotes or introducing deposits, which mechanical aids are to prepare and ensure the deposition of paid-in amounts in appropriately secured spaces, such as, for instance, safes.
Usual counters for paying an and out cash money in banks, post offices or other institutions clearly exhibit deficiencies in terms of security that cannot be readily overcome by conventional means. The money offered for deposit usually is locked in safes, which, however, are reopened for withdrawing notes such that there will always be full access to the whole amount of banknotes in store, creating a high safety risk.
Devices that would enable the automatic identification of banknotes and their respective deposition in a sorted order are relatively complex and prone to failures. For, when taking over banknotes not only must the authenticity of the same be verified, but also any damage to genuine banknotes must be recognized so as to cause such banknotes to be withdrawn from circulation. Only undamaged and, of course, only genuine banknotes are to remain in circulation. Considering the banknotes currently in circulation, devices including safety checks (as functionally safe as possible) involve extremely high expenditures.
The invention contemplates a manipulator for a device of the initially defined kind by which the safety risk at counters and cash-in windows, at which amounts of money are also dispensed, is substantially reduced and by which a fully protected circulatory system for banknotes that is not readily accessible from outside is realized in a simple and cost-saving manner. The device has a drawer with an openable bottom and at least one open or openable longitudinal side wall. The manipulator is capable of being moved transverse to the push-in direction of the drawer and is arranged at the openable or open longitudinal side wall. The manipulator comprises at least one gripping means and is movable into a position in correspondence with the respective bin for the banknotes, and upon opening of the bottom of the drawer, is lowerable from that position into the shaft intended to receive said banknotes. The manipulator, upon closing of the bottom of the the drawer and/or closing of the drawer, remains in the reception shaft for the respective banknotes while maintaining a defined pressure. The fact that the device includes a simple drawer having an openable bottom offers the advantage of being able to effect the deposit of banknotes in accordingly provided bins or recesses immediately upon manual pre-sorting, wherein a particularly simple configuration with a view to manipulating the banknotes thus deposited in a sorted manner may be chosen. After having been moved into a safe, the drawer immediately may redisappear in the protected area with the individual bins of the drawer being emptiable in a simple manner such that only empty recesses will be released upon reopening of such a protected area and access to the banknotes withdrawn in a protected manner will no longer be possible. The banknotes thus altogether disappear in the safe after payment and no longer are completely released upon electronically protected opening of the safe. Dispensing of banknotes may be effected in a conventional manner as with conventional bancomats, wherein, again, only that amount is released which has been demanded in each case, access to greater amounts present in the protected zone, in particular in a safe, thus being prevented. On the whole, the configuration comprising a drawer and an openable bottom provides for a structurally particularly simple solution, offering the opportunity for conducting banknotes completely within a protected circulator, system by employing a structurally extremely simple and cost-saving manipulator, thereby substantially reducing any safety risk. By the fact that the responsibility in terms of security check remains with the cashier, new counterfeit money will be taken notice of quickly and the overall expenditures will be substantially reduced.
In a particularly advantageous manner, the configuration according to the invention is devised such that a separate manipulator is provided for any of the various banknotes, and that all of the manipulators are coupled for common movement, thereby considerably reducing expenditures in terms of control and operation of the manipulators. By emptying each individual partial region of the drawer in parallel upon retraction of the drawer and opening of the bottom, it is ensured that after each depositing procedure, only an empty drawer will actually always be made available to new payments, the time involved in emptying the drawer at the same time being substantially reduced. Withdrawing may be effected in parallel with depositing, since the banknotes during depositing are placed on the existing stack from top and during withdrawing are withdrawn from below. Thereby, true simultaneous operation is guaranteed for paying in and out. The use of the manipulators as suggested by the invention in a simple manner also renders it feasible to build up and maintain the necessary application pressure required from automatic banknote dispensing machines with a view to safely withdrawing banknotes. To this end, the configuration according to the invention advantageously is devised such that the manipulator comprises an electric drive motor including a position transmitter connected with a gripper jaw and that a second jaw cooperating with said gripper jaw is kept in its position via an intermediately arranged overload coupling, in particular a magnetic coupling, thus constantly ensuring the correct load and the correct counter pressure in a particularly simple manner and at low structure expenditures.
In a particularly simple manner, the drive motor and the magnetic coupling are connected to a freely programmable control circuit.
In order to ensure that empty reception bins for the banknotes will be opened at each opening of the drawer, the manipulator advantageously is displaceable along two axes.